


Struggle!  Raihan's Great Determination to Defeat his Rival Begins Now!

by MissTrips



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Gen, Raihan is a genius and doesn't even realize it yet, and his need to crush him, at least one magikarp was harmed for this fic, but everyone around him is learning fast, it turned into baby Raihan's eternal crush on Leon, this was supposed to be something else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:46:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24787924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissTrips/pseuds/MissTrips
Summary: Raihan is going to beat Leon.He knows it.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Struggle!  Raihan's Great Determination to Defeat his Rival Begins Now!

When Raihan was eight, Leon won the Galar Championship at the very old age of ten. Watching Leon's fight against the old Champion left him breathless with awe, and Raihan knew more than anything, he wanted to fight pokemon just like him. He pleaded with his father for the chance to try the gym challenge the next year, and was utterly crushed when his father refused to grant permission, stating that he was too young.

Raihan didn't talk to his father for a full two weeks in outrage. Not even the sensible pointing out that Raihan didn't even have a pokemon of his own, and the family's pidoves were bred for racing and not battling didn't fully soothe the feeling of betrayal. The next competitive season left him in a deep sulk, he'd been sure that he would have won everything and then he'd defeat Leon and become the new youngest Champion ever. That Leon defended his title eased the sting, Raihan could compete next year and *then* beat Leon.

For his tenth birthday, his parents gave him his very first pokemon. A pidove. He'd asked for a gyarados, because water *beat* fire, he knew that. But he had his own pokemon now. He could *catch* a gyarados!

After one rather shocking encounter and a frantic trip to the pokemon clinic, Raihan caught a magikarp instead.

But he had two pokemon now. An actual team. And he was ten! He could go to the gym and ask to be recommended without needing his father's permission.

The Hammerlocke gym was a very long walk, but Raihan had packed a snack and he arrived two hours after the gym had opened. He wasn't the only person there to be try for a gym endorsement, in fact there were quite a lot of trainers. The gym trainer at the front desk looked him over and then handed him a small booklet and a pencil. "Fill this out and then come back."

Raihan bit at his lower lip, wanting to say that he was ready, but maybe this was the form for getting his number? He opened it and his eyebrows climbed up. It was a test! There were all sorts of questions about pokemon, the gyms and even things like type advantages and priority moves.

He didn't know everything it asked, but he'd been following the League since forever and he'd always gotten good marks in school.

Raihan turned it in and was told to sit and wait for someone to call him. Fifteen minutes later a different trainer walked out and called his name, causing several of the other people also taking tests to look at him oddly, but he hopped off his seat and trotted over.

His answers were apparently good enough that they wanted to see him battle. For one wild moment, he thought maybe they'd take him all the way out to the main stadium, but instead it was a normal training hall. There were three trainers sitting off to one side and they were passing what Raihan thought was his test back and forth.

"How many pokemon do you have?" A very tall woman asked him with a clipboard in her hand and a rotom phone floating by her shoulder.

"Two, ma'am." She raised an eyebrow at him but made a note on a clipboard she was holding.

"Levels?"

"Seven... and four." He squirmed a little but the magikarp had been level two when he'd caught the fish, and he'd only gotten a few chances to train either of his mon. She didn't say anything, but made another note. The tall woman didn't ask him what his team was, but Raihan knew that was considered rude to ask. Only in official league battles were teams supposed to be declared.

"Valerie. Match him with two. Raihan, this is Hammerlocke. We do two things." She paused and gave him an expectant look and he swallowed.

"Dragons ma'am. And... doubles." He'd been to see three matches live so far and Hammerlocke boasted the oldest stadium, dating back all the way to when pokemon battles were used to decide wars and the ancient rules of battling still applied even in the modern era.

"You'll fight Valerie in a double match. Your written answers got you past the front room, Raihan, but this is the real test. Hammerlocke gives out four referrals every year to trainers who aren't affiliated with the gym. Do you need to have your team healed?"

Raihan shook his head. "No... no ma'am." He had healed his magikarp with a potion yesterday, and both of his mon held an oran berry that he'd gotten out of a tree, narrowly dodging an indignant skwovet trying to steal them back. "I'm... ready."

He was a little terrified. He'd never fought a real trainer, and this was a gym trainer! But if he wanted their endorsement, he had to, he needed this. So he squared his shoulders and walked out to the middle of the battle circle to wait.

Valerie took a moment to switch her team around, handing three balls over to the third trainer on the sidelines, then checking the remaining two balls and finally nodding and joining him in the battle area. "Alright kid, impress us."

She threw trapinch, and an applin. The trapinch was level 8 and the applin level 6. Raihan threw his own team out.

There was a small bout of coughing off to one side and it sounded a *lot* like the third trainer was trying real hard not to laugh. Raihan though stared at the two pokemon opposing him.

The trapinch. That was the one that *had* to go first. "The trapinch! Pidove, gust! Magikarp... splash!"

Valarie called out her own commands, sand toss and astonish, the sand toss on his pidove, and the astonish to the magikarp.

His family's pidoves weren't good battlers. But she was fast. His father bred for speed and evasivness. There was no way she wouldn't go first, gust was a flying move and his magikarp...

Raihan hadn't taken the magikarp back to a pokemon center. The water pokemon was out of power for splash, after trying to whittle the mon down to catch him, and then he'd used the rest of the moves on several bugs in the park near his house trying to put a few desperately needed levels on the fish.

The pidove went first, dealing a good blow to the trapinch. Then both of Valerie's mon attacked, the applin's astonish doing more damage than Raihan would have liked to his magikarp and the sand toss lowering his pidove's accuracy. Then his magikarp tried to splash, but he struggled instead and just like that, the trapinch was in trouble. But thanks to the recoil damage so was magikarp, and the fish pokemon swallowed his berry down.

Raihan was pretty sure there was a bad word said by that third trainer, but his eyes were on Valerie, who was looking at him with renewed intent.

"Pidove, magikarp! Again! Gust and splash the trapinch!" Valerie called out for both her mon to attack, this time with the trapinch going for a bite on his pidove, an attack that might knock her out completely if she didn't finish off the trapinch now.

Even with her accuracy reduced, his pidove managed to land the knockout blow on the trapinch. The applin's astonish carved back away at magikarp. His magikarp struggled again, switching targets to the applin, the recoil damage from the struggle putting him back dangerously low... but with the much more dangerous trapinch down, Raihan could feel the battle coming to a close in two more rounds. He figured his magikarp would faint next round, but unless his pidove missed, she'd have the applin sorted out.

He was right.

Raihan recalled his pidove to her ball, his hands shaking a little at the realization that he'd scored his first real win. Valerie shook her head and gave a half laugh, holding out a hand for him to shake, "And here I thought you were going to come out with a scorbunny or a growlithe just like every other kid these past two years, with maybe a yamper or a blipbug. A pidove. I did not see that coming or that you'd thought to drain down that fish."

He shook her hand and chewed at his lip. "I wanted a gyarados. To counter charizard."

Valerie's eyebrow rose and she let go of his hand to ruffle his hair a little. "Well, clearly you've got your goals set high. There's only the one in the leauge." She looked over at the tall woman and the third trainer, who was laughing openly at Valerie.

The tall woman nodded at the rotom, and Raihan realized that the whole match had been recorded. "Send that up to the Leader if you please rotom." She looked over at Raihan and gave him a smile. "Thank you, Raihan. You can receive a payout for your win against Valerie at the front desk, and we'll be making announcements for the endorcements at the end of the week."

The payout was... a lot. Enough that Raihan could buy better camping gear, and some more pokeballs! He could grow his team... he could...

He could do this.

All the way.

Leon was waiting for him at the end, after all.

And Raihan was going to win.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be something *else*. And it turned into a brain dump of baby Raihan deciding that he's going to beat Leon. And then my brain decided that there were pidoves involved. And a magikarp. and then I was looking up pokemon stats and oh... heck. It's a standalone ficlet now.
> 
> Leon is sitting up in Wyndon with no clue what's coming or any idea that he's suddenly gained a whole new rivalry.


End file.
